Around the Jewish world

Poll: Backing for Obama lags earlier Democrats

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article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Barack Obama is underperforming among Jewish voters compared to previous Democratic candidates, according to a new survey.
Obama leads 57 percent to 30 percent among those polled in the American Jewish Committee’s 2008 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, with 13 percent undecided. But he significantly trails the Jewish tallies recorded by recent Democratic presidential candidates. By contrast, John Kerry received 76 percent of the Jewish vote four years ago against George W. Bush, and in the three prior presidential elections, Democrats won 78 to 80 percent of Jewish votes. The 2004 AJC survey, taken three weeks earlier in that campaign than this year, found Kerry leading 69 percent to 24 percent. The poll was conducted last month by telephone. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. McCain enjoyed a 78 percent to 13 percent lead among Orthodox Jews, but Obama won easily among all other Jewish groups: Conservatives, 59 percent to 26 percent; Reform, 62 percent to 27 percent; and those calling themselves “just Jewish,” 61percent to 26 percent. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate was unpopular in the Jewish community, according to the survey. Just 37 percent approved, with 54 percent disapproving of the selection. By contrast, Obama’s choice of Joe Biden garnered 73 percent approval and 15 percent disapproval. The economy was seen as the most important issue. Fifty four percent of respondents said that was the one issue they would “most like the candidates to discuss,” with 11 percent answering health care, 6 percent the war in Iraq and just 3 percent answering Israel.

 

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Barack Obama’s senior adviser on Middle East issues declined to offer a timeline for achieving a two-state solution. Former U.S. peace negotiator Dennis Ross told JTA that an Obama administration would be actively engaged in promoting Israeli Palestinian negotiations with the ultimate objective of achieving a two-state solution. But, he added, “engagement without illusion” is what’s necessary. “We’ll be engaged in an intensive way, not in an episodic way,” Ross said. “The objective is to produce peace, but we’re not going to produce artificial timelines. We’d like to achieve it as soon as possible, but we’re not going to stake out something before we know what can be achieved.” One major obstacle, he said, was Hamas’ control of Gaza. “There won’t be a two-state solution with Hamas controlling Gaza it can’t be,” he said. According to Ross, Palestinians will not accept a division of the territories and Israelis will not accept a two-state solution with Hamas in control of Gaza.

NEW YORK (JTA)—Jonathan Tobin has been named executive editor of Commentary magazine. Tobin, currently the editor in chief of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, will assume his new post on Jan. 1. “Jonathan Tobin has done brilliant work at the Exponent both as an editor and a columnist,” said John Podhoretz, who will take over as Commentary’s editor on Jan. 1. “His professionalism, intellectual curiosity and deep commitment to the enduring ideas that have animated Commentary since its founding in 1945 will make him an ideal member of our staff as we work to expand the magazine’s reach and its audience while remaining true to its unparalleled tradition of excellence and its uncompromising pursuit of the truth.”

NEW YORK (JTA)—A coalition of U.S. religious groups exchanged views with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a New York hotel. The dialogue Sept. 25—sponsored by Mennonite, Quaker and other religious groups that press for world peace—had been sharply criticized by Jewish groups for allegedly legitimating the Iranian president’s anti-Semitic rhetoric and his oppression of religious minorities in Iran. Speakers included Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of the Jewish Renewal movement. In a story disseminated by the Mennonite Central Committee, Gottlieb said that during her remarks she spoke about the Holocaust, which Ahmadinejad has denied. “Because of the Holocaust, I learned from the rabbis who ordained and guide me, to be active in preventing further suffering of all human beings as a primary religious call to action,” Gottlieb said. In an interview with Reuters afterwards, Gottlieb said Ahmadinejad “minimized” the Holocaust during the dialogue but did not outright deny that it had taken place. Also speaking was Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, a Catholic priest and Nicaraguan diplomat who is currently president of the U.N. General Assembly. The Mennonite report said that speakers raised religious repression in Iran, but Ahmadinejad did not address their questions in his talk, nor did he take questions afterward, as had been planned. Much of his talk focused on attacking Israel. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government group that advises the legislative and executive branches, had called on the organizers not to hold the dinner.

WASHINGTON (JTA)—U.S. military officers are in Israel for talks about the purchase of a next generation fighter jet. The officers, from the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, are aiming to finalize details of Israel’s plan to purchase the stealth fighter next year, the Jerusalem Post reported. Officials said Israel is aiming to make an official order and sign a contract with the Pentagon in early 2009, which would result in the receipt of the new aircraft in 2014. Israel’s Defense Ministry submitted a request in May to purchase 25 of the planes, with an option for 50 more.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—A Hamas parliamentarian called for more “martyrdom operations” against Israelis. “We call on all the factions to undertake efforts to contain the enemy and halt its aggression by planning martyrdom operations,” lawmaker Ahmed Abu Helbiya told 2,000 protestors in Gaza City. The event was scheduled on Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, a holiday initially declared by Iran after its 1979 revolution, to mark a day of protest against Israel.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s army is using Facebook to track down draft dodgers. The army visited the Facebook account of a teenager who was dismissed from army service after declaring she was religious despite attending a secular school, and discovered that she did not lead a religious lifestyle, Ynet reported. Pictures on her Facebook account showed that she did not dress in a style acceptable to the religious community and that she attended parties on Shabbat. The army has since drafted her. The teen appealed the decision but was turned down. Some 44 percent of Israeli teenage females do not enlist—53 percent on religious grounds, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Fighter planes from three countries escorted a passenger flight from Paris to Tel Aviv suspected of carrying a bomb. Israeli officials later said there was no bomb on the El Al Boeing 767. The plane and passengers landed safely at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport Sept. 25. The aircraft was searched after those on board were evacuated.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Paul McCartney performed in Israel for 40,000 fans. McCartney’s concert Sept. 25 was the first ever by a Beatle in Israel; conservative authorities forbade the Fab Four from performing in 1965. Tickets to the concert in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park sold for between $150 and $1,500. McCartney played Beatles classics including “The Long and Winding Road” and “Yesterday,” as well as songs from his solo career. McCartney, whose tour had been dogged by pro-Palestinian groups who asked him not to come and Islamists who issued death threats, greeted the audience with “Shanah Tovah” to mark the Jewish New Year as well as “Ramadan Karim,” marking the Muslim month of fasting now under way.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel and Azerbaijan reportedly signed an arms deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the report in Ha’aretz, Israel will sell the Muslim nation bordering Iran mortars, artillery and communications equipment. Secular Azerbaijan has in recent years been concerned about apparent Iranian efforts to export Shia fundamentalism into its borders.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—World powers guiding the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks pressed for an agreement before year’s end and praised modest successes. Foreign-minister-level representatives of the Quartet, the group comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, met Sept. 26 in New York at the end of the opening week of the General Assembly. A concluding statement called for a peace plan this year, something unlikely to happen while Israel is in political turmoil and the Palestinians remain split between relatively moderate Palestinian Authority rule in the West Bank and control by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Palestinians are blaming settlers for the death of a Palestinian shepherd found in the West Bank. The body of the 19-year-old was found Sept. 27 near Nablus. Palestinians say the murder is part of ongoing harassment by settlers against Palestinians. A statement from the Homesh First settler organization expressed anger that the settlers would be blamed before an investigation took place. “There’s no doubt that all settlers are responsible for the murder in the valley. There is also no doubt that all settlers planted the pipe bomb which exploded on Prof. Sternhell’s front door,” the statement said, referring to an incident the previouis week involving an Israel Prize winning professor who has taken a stand against the settlement movement. On Sept. 28, the Jerusalem Post reported that Jewish visits to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus have been suspended indefinitely to punish settlers for not forcefully condemning recent attacks on Palestinians and soldiers.

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Syrian leaders and Arab media are blaming Israel and the United States for a car bomb in Damascus. The Sept. 26 explosion killed 17 civilians, according to reports. It took place near a Syrian intelligence service building. An unnamed high ranking military officer was killed in the attack, according to reports. “Israel is at the top of the list of those who benefit from this type of action,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in New York at the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. A columnist for the Jordanian daily Al Dustur blamed the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. Syria has been the scene of several assassinations in recent months, including the shooting last month of Hisham el Badni, secretary to Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashaal, and the July shooting of Brig. Gen. Mohammad Suleiman, a senior aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

NEW YORK (JTA)—Yad Vashem has taken possession of copies of nearly 52,000 Holocaust video testimonies, giving it the world’s largest collection. The USC Shoah Foundation for Visual History and Education, which was started by film director Steven Spielberg, provided the latest testimonies to Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem. The videos from the foundation at the University of Southern California supplement Yad Vashem’s existing archive of 10,000 filmed testimonies. The cumulative 200,000 hours of video are publicly accessible. The Shoah Foundation videotaped testimonies of Holocaust survivors from 56 countries in 32 languages from 1994 to 2000.

NEW YORK (JTA)—A retiree living in Bellingham, Wash., is accused of committing genocide and other crimes as a Nazi soldier during World War II. A Serbian war crimes court said Sept. 26 that Peter Egner, 86, is suspected of committing war crimes against civilians in Belgrade while serving as a Nazi soldier from 1941 to 1944, The Associated Press reported. Serbia has said it would seek Egner’s extradition from the United States. Egner, who formerly lived in West Linn, Ore., was charged in July in a complaint filed by the U.S. District Court in Seattle of violating U.S. immigration law by misrepresenting his military service during World War II.

 

NEW YORK (JTA)—Valuable art stolen by the Nazis will be returned to relatives of the original collector, but they will not be able to bring the works home. The 32-piece collection of paintings and drawings had belonged to Jewish lawyer Emil Fruend, who died in 1942 in Poland’s Lodz Ghetto after being deported from Prague. The Jewish Museum in Prague will transfer the collection to Freund’s American relatives, but they cannot leave the country with the art because the Czech Culture Ministry in 2002 declared 13 of the most valuable pieces cultural treasures. One painting, Paul Signac’s “Riverboat on Seine” (1901), is worth nearly $2 million, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune. The collection, which also includes works by Andre Derain and Maurice Utrillo, would likely attract higher bids abroad than it would in the Czech Republic. Freund’s family also must offer pieces of the collection to the Czech state before attempting to sell to others. The family and the state are negotiating.

PRAGUE (JTA)—Violent hate crime is at historically high levels in Europe and North America, a watchdog group reported. The “2008 Hate Crime Survey,” released Sept. 25 by Human Rights First, examines the rate of violent hate crimes by motivation in the 56 countries that are members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Information was obtained from official statistics and reports of nongovernmental monitors. The survey also reports that overall levels of violent anti-Semitic attacks against persons increased in Canada, Germany, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United Kingdom in 2007. Britain had the highest number of such assaults since monitoring began in 1984. The Russian Federation is identified as an area of particular concern where a proliferation of violent hate crimes directed against non-Slavic members of society and immigrants is on track to set a record for the fourth year in a row.